1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to rotary floor scrubbing machines and the attachment of scrubbing elements, such as brushes, thereto.
2. Description of the Related Art
Rotary floor scrubbing machines are used for a variety of floor care purposes including cleaning of carpeted, ceramic tiled, concrete, slate, quarry tiled and terrazzo floors and stripping and polishing of concrete, terrazzo and quarry tiled floors. A major impediment to supplying floor scrubbing elements, generally brushes or pads, is providing the correct specific element for the particular floor scrubbing machine. Generally, each floor scrubbing machine manufacturer has designed specific methods and hardware to attach and drive rotary floor scrubbing elements and at times has varied the methods and hardware within its own line by specific machine models. Although the general base geometry and theories to attach the scrubbing elements to the machines do not vary greatly, they do vary enough to make it difficult to order, supply and fit the correct scrubbing element to the correct machine. In light of this difficulty, a significant factor in many rotary floor scrubbing machine purchase decisions is how straightforward and easy it is to order and be supplied the correct product for a specific make and model of rotary floor scrubbing machine. Many end users utilize rotary floor pads instead of rotary brushes because they seldom need to change the pad driver or drive specific hardware and only have to obtain “consumable” rotary floor pads. The consumable rotary floor pads are not specific to any machine or model; however, pads are not as durable as brushes and, hence, must be replaced more frequently than brushes.